The resurrection of a campus pub has been a project four years in the making. After first being proposed by the Residential College Commission in 1997, the pub was unanimously endorsed by the Students? Association Senate and the Faculty Senate in the spring of 1999. After the idea was sent to the Board of Trustees in February 1999 and almost guaranteed by administrators by Sesquicentennial, it mysteriously disappeared from the agenda in the summer of 2000.
It looked like the idea was dead. While most would have given up, class of 2001 graduate Sam Tasker did not.
Through it all, Tasker was there. He supported the idea when no one would, he talked when no one would listen, and he fought when most would have sat down. Details for Tasker?s dream were finally approved this summer after Tasker, a ROTC midshipman, got his UR diploma and shipped out to sea with the navy.
The debate over the pub now centers on what to name the new establishment. It appears that the current front-runner among some members of the Students? Association is TJ?s, to honor President Thomas Jackson?s decision to finally consent to bringing back the pub. Our own informal Web poll shows a leaning among our readers to remember the past and name the pub the Rathskeller in honor of the previous pub that closed its doors in 1993 to create the Common Ground Caf.
While both names are justifiable, the pub should be named after Tasker to recognize his achievement of working for so long to bring the pub back for all of UR to enjoy.
Naming the pub after Tasker would also send a message to the student body. Too often, students are not rewarded for the efforts they make it enhance student life except improving that student life for years after they leave. Take a walk around campus and look at the buildings. Every one of them bears the name of a former professor, president or a famous Rochestarian.
Of the many UR officials we talked to, not one can remember anything at UR that was named for an undergraduate solely for their work here as an undergraduate. This needs to change. This should change with Tasker.
